2025-08-11 01:23:05
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Chapter Thirteen – The Forgotten Protocol
Moscow – Abandoned Soviet Data Center 5:17 p.m. "Ϟ"A symbol with no known agency, no known cipher, no matching string in any government database, Yet it had appeared in Cain’s system. And now, it was appearing everywhere.Cassian led Ayla and Vex through rusted steel doors into the data tomb beneath the city, one of the USSR’s forgotten cold war vaults. But this one wasn’t abandoned.Inside: heat signatures, low-level power, a recent trace of server activity, Ayla moved through aisles of dust-choked machines, her flashlight sweeping across Soviet-era storage racks. “What is this place?”Cassian replied, “Before the Foundation, there was another project. One so secret even the Kremlin buried it without a name. They called it ‘Protocol Icarus.’”She stopped walking. “Why haven’t I heard of this?”“Because Icarus was purged. Files shredded. Agents executed. The only thing that survived…” he nodded toward a humming, pitch-black server in the back, “was this.”The Black Server... No marki
Chapter Twelve – The Overseer’s Blind Spot
Olivia Cain stood at the edge of the skyscraper’s panoramic window, arms crossed, watching the sunrise with the stillness of a statue.Below her: Europe.Behind her: war rooms.In her hand: the last message from Hollow Point.“Glasswork offline. Core compromised. Vex not confirmed. Cassian and Trent unaccounted for.”She hadn’t moved in hours. “Ma’am,” an aide began, stepping into the office. “The Zurich Protocol is ready to”Cain raised a hand, The aide froze mid-sentence. “I felt it,” she murmured. “The moment it happened. Like a strand cut in my spine.”She turned. Her eyes were sharper than ever. “Tell Langford to meet me. Discreetly. No Bureau trail. No satellite signatures.”The aide hesitated. “He’s… vanished.”Cain blinked, That was not part of the plan.Meanwhile – Moscow Safehouse Ayla, Cassian, Vex... They didn’t trust each other. Not even slightly. But they were alive. And that counted for something, Ayla paced while Cassian stitched a gash above his eyebrow.Vex leaned a
Chapter Eleven – Ghost Ice
Antarctica – Hollow Point Ruins, Zero Visibility. One Hour After Glasswork Shutdown.The power was gone, The temperature inside Hollow Point was dropping by the second. Once-warm server chambers were turning into metal tombs.Cassian leaned against a collapsed console, bleeding from a wound at his temple. Ayla tore a strip from her undershirt and pressed it to his head. “We need to move. Now,” she said. “Before we freeze to death.”He nodded, dazed. “Extraction?”“Gone. Comms fried in the surge. We’re on our own.”She paused. “And Vex?”Cassian didn’t answer, Which meant Vex was still alive, They moved through the corridors, emergency lights flickering weakly. Ayla kept her weapon raised. Cassian leaned on her for support, barely speaking.Outside, the storm howled like it wanted them back, Ayla reached the external hatch, but stopped cold, The helicopter was gone. Cassian stared. “He took it?”“No,” she said quietly.Because Vex hadn’t taken the helicopter, He’d destroyed it, The twi
Chapter Ten – Hollow Point
Somewhere over the Southern Ocean. Private Jet – 4:12 a.m.The storm outside raged like a living thing, hurling ice against the fuselage as Ayla reviewed the Hollow Point briefing for the fifth time. The server facility had been scrubbed from every known record. Its coordinates were only available through a decrypted Ghost-level cipher.Only three people had ever walked out of it, Cain, Langford, Vex, And now Ayla Trent was going in, Cassian sat across from her, silent. Reading her.Finally, she broke the quiet. “You ever been to Hollow Point?”His answer was a long pause. “I built the kill switch.”Hollow Point – 27 hours later Lat. 78.5° S / Long. 106.9° WThe helicopter dropped low over a windswept field of white. The weather station jutted out of the ground like a forgotten tooth, steel-gray, battered by wind, half-buried in snow.As Ayla stepped out, the cold hit like a hammer, so sharp it made her teeth ache. The silence here wasn’t peaceful. It was vacant. A silence so complete
Chapter Nine – The Fourth Name
3:12 a.m. – Blacksite 17... Ayla stood over the table, watching the encrypted file Cassian had quietly dropped onto the server.Target #4:Name: Abram LangfordAlias: OverseerPosition: FBI DirectorStatus: ActiveAffiliation: Foundation LiaisonPriority: CriticalShe didn’t speak. She didn’t move, Because that name… meant everything, Langford was her handler. Her boss. The one man who’d vouched for her when the agency had tried to bench her. The one man who’d never flinched, until now.Cassian finally broke the silence. “I didn’t want to show you this yet.”“Why now?” Ayla asked quietly.“Because Cain’s next phase requires an asset inside the Bureau. Langford isn’t just a leak, he’s a node. He routes intel. Approves black budgets. Silences investigations. And he’s kept Glasswork alive for over a decade.”Ayla turned to him, fury flashing behind her eyes. “You’re asking me to take down the one person who saved my career.”“I’m asking you to finish what your mother started.”That cut d
Chapter Eight – The Glass Floor
Prague – 02:31 a.m... Rain slicked the cobblestone outside the Virelli Syndicate tower, black as oil beneath Ayla’s boots.She didn’t check her weapon, She didn’t call for backup, She’d made peace with whatever would happen next. This wasn’t a mission, This was personal.She stepped through the revolving doors. The night staff didn't even glance up, paid not to ask questions. She bypassed security. Her credentials were already in the system. Of course they were. Cain had invited her. Top Floor – 02:43 a.m.Ayla entered a room of glass and marble, Cain stood near the far window, her reflection blurred in the storm-drenched pane. She wore white again, tailored, precise, symbolic. Beside her stood Elijah Vex, He didn’t move, Didn’t blink.Cain turned. Calm as always. "Agent Trent. You're early."“I didn’t come to talk.”Cain smiled faintly. “Of course you did. Everyone talks before they kill someone.”Ayla didn’t sit. Her hands stayed at her sides, loose, ready, “You murdered my mother,”
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